Safety concerns raised over lorry drivers parking on hard shoulder to register border crossings

The provisions of the Mobility Package mean lorry drivers now have to register border crossings via their tachograph. At the time of the change, concerns were raised over drivers parking in dangerous places nearby border crossings in order to register their entry into another country. Despite it being clarified that the registration can be made at the nearest safe parking space, there are continued reports of lorries parking on the hard shoulder on the Netherlands-Germany border.

As reported by Dutch online news service omroepvenlo.nl, a lorry driver who regularly transports goods in the border area around Venlo says he is regularly seeing trucks parked up on the hard shoulder of the A73/74 in the Netherlands and the A61 in Germany.

In one case noted by local politician Peter Bastiaens, a car driver was killed when a lorry suddenly moved off the hard shoulder onto the motorway.

The problem in the Venlo area is said to be particularly bad due to the lack of a HGV parking area at either side of the border crossing.

Bastiaens claims the reason why so many truckers stop on the hard shoulder to register border crossings is that they are afraid of being fined.

The problem should eventually be solved by future generations of tachographs automatically registering border crossings. However, until then, the local authorities have been in contact with the road transport inspectorate to try to clamp down on the practice of parking on the hard shoulder.